The Xiaolin Quest
by Mistoffelees l'Immortelle
Summary: After realizing that fighting over the Shen Gong Wu will get them nowhere, the Xiaolins and Heylins put aside their respective differences and figure out how to destroy the Shen Gong Wu. A band of intrepid adventurers-Good Jack, Jack, Chase, Le Mime, and the four Xiaolin monks-set out on a quest of epic proportions. Inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
1. Prologue

**Recently, I've been watching Xiaolin Showdown and its continuation, Xiaolin Chronicles. I didn't watch very much of it when it was on the air-perhaps one or two glances at it when I was a child-but I find the humour and personality of the characters quite interesting. **

**I am also a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, and started reading _The Lord of the Rings _a few days ago. I got this idea into my head: an epic, Tolkien-esque adventure involving a team of combined Xiaolins and Heylins. I wrote off this prologue based on the final scene of the series finale of Xiaolin Showdown. This is my first Xiaolin fanfic, and I will gladly accept any ideas or prospective plot elements. If any of you see inconsistencies within my story-that is, anywhere my tale and the shows clash grossly-please point these out, and I will gladly make corrections. Above all, please review!**

**P.S. If anyone could suggest a good title for this fic, I'd be grateful; I'm quite stumped for a good one.**

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Prologue:

This was it: the final battle, the outcome of which would signal who rightfully claimed both the Shen Gong Wu and the universe. All those who had allied themselves with the four virtuous Xiaolin Monks of wind, water, earth, and fire phalanxed the allies of the Heylins, who were themselves a group of formidable antagonists. The four monks, Raimundo, Kimiko, Omi, and Clay, used both their elemental powers and the Shen Gong Wu to form offensive barricades of earth held together by water, sculpted into walls by wind, and baked shut by fire. These were quickly broken down by phalanx upon phalanx of Heylin warriors, many of whom were in fact hired mercenaries conscripted into action by the sorceress Wuya through some form of arcane enchantment or else by the machinations of Chase Young. Chase himself was conducting a rather disorderly mass of large felines-panthers, lions, the like-straight into where the fighting was thickest, while on his left side Jack Spicer paraded with surprising boldness, leading a division of Jack-bots swiftly to the front. Behind him in a much smaller chariot cowered the Good Jack Spicer, who in effect served as the antagonist's antagonist, being virtuous in all things.

The battle grew more and more heated. Villain and hero fell side by side, wounded and doubly wounded. The Xiaolin and Heylin seemed to become two walls cemented together by animosity, piling up in waves of combat. It looked a perfect stalemate. Bodies contorted and changed shape with each javelin-thrust or sword-stroke. Whole armies appeared lifeless the moment they opposed one another, and neither side had the upper hand. All was in a standstill.

'Stop!' shouted the Good Jack Spicer, in a voice that seemed to echo through the universe. All the combatants fell silent and stared at him suddenly. There was a pause; the air was pregnant with tension.

'Don't you realise what you're doing?' he asked. They continued to stare. 'You're acting like children, fighting over trinkets and baubles which really have you tearing each other apart! I know that's the idea, but you're turning the world into a battleground. Soon there won't be any earth to rule over thanks to your fighting. And then where would you be?'

The Xiaolin monks and Heylin antagonists thought about this, and then a sudden thought entered their minds like a proverbial bolt from the blue. More silence ensued, and gradually the opposing sides dropped their blades, arrows and staffs in a clatter.

'You make a valid point, Jack.' It was Omi who spoke, in a serious tone. Raimundo quickly picked up the idea as well.

'Yeah, you're right. If we keep on fighting like this, the entire universe will be blown to oblivion!'

'Kinda defeats the purpose of fighting and living,' continued Clay, dusting himself off lightly.

'This battling and slaughter,...really is for nothing,' Kimiko added. The four monks laid their respective Shen Gong Wu on the ground.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One:

'And so it is decided,' declared Raimundo, attempting to sound ceremonious, 'that power such as Shen Gong Wu possess cannot be held by any one person-'

'And therefore should be got rid of,' finished Chase Young, seated to Raimundo's right, 'so as to effect the safety and well-being of all life on earth, good or evil.' He sounded slightly annoyed by the idea; no doubt he was, being a villain.

'Yes,' continued Raimundo, a smidgen peeved.

The assorted counsel of Heylins and Xiaolins sat miraculously in perfect concord at a large table at which food and drink sat being devoured silently. There were wines of all sorts, and tea in little Oriental cups, and large mediaeval helpings of pork, poultry, and beef on glittering platters. Wuya, the wicked yet venerable sorceress, sat in her human incarnation at one end of the table, with Raimundo facing her from across a sea of allies and sympathisers. She rose, her gown flowing in all directions from her with a malignant air. 'I have a question that I'm sure everyone is asking themselves:' she said to Raimundo, 'how shall we dispose of the Shen Gong Wu?'

'The lady makes a valid statement,' said a chivalrous Chase Young, rising with goblet of shimmering violet wine in hand. 'We certainly cannot hide them over the earth, as that would be disastrous. Shall we simply break them beneath our feet? Or perhaps burn them, or freeze them, or deactivate their powers with some esoteric alchemical potion?

'Besides, there are hundreds of Shen Gong Wu already revealed; how can we possibly send all of them to certain perdition?'

The room erupted into chaos all at once as various persons began to propose their ideas and hypotheses. Arguments sprang up almost immediately following, and voices rose in anger and confusion. Chase Young himself was bickering with Raimundo over some trivial point of which European nation had the best soccer team. Wuya was sitting down in her chair, rubbing her temples out of agony. She was very susceptible to migraines, and having been partners with Jack Spicer did nothing to ease that.

The room seemed about to burst when a single voice brought the chaos to abrupt silence:

'Silence, s'il vous plaît!'

The Xiaolins and Heylins all turned to see a Frenchman in mime costume standing in the doorway. It was Le Mime, a sorcerer who possessed Heylin sympathies, having once tried to assist Jack Spicer, but to no avail; he had been beaten by Clay in a skirmish as the latter was en route to obtaining the Fist of Tebigong. He specialised in generating various apparati which were invisible to the naked eye-ropes, boxes, and other things which mimes make-which could only be escaped if the prisoner was sapient enough to imagine a way out. Raimundo, Kimiko, and Omi had fallen prey to Le Mime's enchantments, and spent countless hours trying to blast and bash their way out of an invisible box until Raimundo discovered he could make the box whatever he desired by imagining bars or a door.

Here he stood, eyes a-gleam with a devious light, figure erect, and a smile laden with words of answer. ' I believe,' he rang out in clear tones, 'I have a solution to the question proposed by Madame Wuya.' He bowed politely to the witch, and cleared a space for himself by Raimundo and Chase Young. Le Mime withdrew from a sling on his tall back a great sheet of thick, aged vellum, and laid on the table. It was a map, of ancient design and drawing, with faded gilt borders and calligraphies of picturesque azures and emeralds and dark crimsons.

'This is a map of some ancient mountains long since effaced by the twin ravages of Time and Man, which were situated in the mythical area of England known as Lyonesse, said to border Cornouaille or Cornwall.'

Chase Young leaned back in his chair in a recollective pose, and then remembered where he had heard the name Lyonesse. 'It features prominently, does it not, in the legends of Arthur, King of the Britons? As I recall reading in Tennyson's Idylls of the King and in other sources, it was destroyed by inundation, having been considered a sort of Sodom and Gomorrah quite similar to the Breton Cité d'Ys. It was the home of Tristram, who fell in love with the fair Iseult or Isolde, as Wagner calls her in his drama.'

'When the city was destroyed, the mountains went with it, leaving Cornwall in its place,' continued Le Mime, running a solitary finger round the centre of what purported to be the city of Lyonnesse itself. 'The chief mountain, a peak known in legend as Caergon's Altar, is said to be a magical mountain, which can be summoned by certain spells and metamorphosed into a turbulent volcano. It is there that one could destroy the most powerful of Shen Gong Wu.'

'That answers the question of how to destroy, but the question of destroying all the Shen Gong Wu remains unanswered,' Wuya said, rising once more.

'I can answer that,' replied Raimundo, rising to meet the sorceress, his youthful eye fixed on hers. 'After losing the Sword of the Storm to Tubbimura-' he gestured to a very portly Japanese warrior dressed in Ninja garb- 'I studied extensively the manuscripts left behind by Grand Master Dashi. In one of his codices, in a little fragment of scroll, Dashi writes that all the Shen Gong Wu are connected by a bond of magic. If this bond is released or broken, it can take only one Wu to set off a chain reaction that would annihilate all the others, revealed or hidden.'

'Have you the means to break the spell?' asked Wuya.

'Yes; I memorized the spells by heart, as well as copied them out. I like to carry a small book of spells wherever I go.' Raimundo produced a small hand-bound volume from the pocket of his robe. 'I fashioned it myself,' he beamed, seeming proud of his handiwork.

'Very well, very well;' said Chase Young after a brief silence. 'We have the means, motive, and location. Now we need a plan. Xiaolin Monks, Wuya, Jack, Monsieur le Mime, I ask you to join me at my palace. We shall form a plan there. This meeting is hereby adjourned.'


End file.
